Dave, The Driver, Al Pastore, Church & creepy antique dealers: The Perfect Anniversary weekend.

Let me start with this: 
We had a pretty unconventional anniversary weekend. For the first time we didn't stay in a hotel, we didn't have a fancy dinner somewhere, there were no flowers. 
Despite our lack of tradition, we had a blast. How could we not? 
Friday afternoon we headed towards the Forum. We got there sorta early, but there was a reason for that. I had heard a rumor that Dave had played drums for Cage the Elephant, one of the opening bands. The drummer's appendix had (as Dave put it) "exploded inside his body". I sat eagerly awaiting CTE, but enjoyed Mariachi El Bronx. They happen to be a hardcore band who go by "El Bronx" when they are not sporting traditional mariachi outfits and singing accordingly. We're hoping our neighbors hire them for the next major party that goes down there instead of the other mariachi bands they hire.  CTE took the stage and some guy climbed behind the drums that I didn't know. He managed to play one song and then sat behind a few speakers. The lead singer started to explain: 


"Our drummer's appendix burst and he has to take it easy. So, one of our friends is going to step in for him. He's was the drummer for a band called Scream. His name is David."


I came out of my chair! The Forum wasn't terribly full yet and I was surprised at the lack of enthusiasm over this new drummer. Why should they be so excited? Here's the drummer from Scream:

I'd recognize those nostrils anywhere.

 Like I told Cameron, it's one thing to see the man play guitar and sing, but to watch him on drums is truly incredible. I was glued to it.  We were on our feet as soon as the show started, which is a major commitment seeing as Dave promised a 3 hour show. Oh and Cameron has that whole broken foot thing. I won't review  the whole concert, I'll save that for another post, but it was three hours well spent. 

 Their encore ended up being 7 songs. Yes, seven. They of course ended with the always epic Everlong. I will take this as being sung directly to my husband and I for our 6th wedding anniversary.  

 We left in the post-concert glow. 

Instead of hitting up Denny's or the 24 hour Jack in the Box that everyone was going to, we opted for a taco truck. Kids, let me sing the praises of the yellow taco truck in the middle of the other two on Fair Oaks Ave. It's the best. We both got tacos and sodas and only paid $9. You can't beat that price. The tacos are the tastiest I've ever had and it's a real blast to order food that late at night with several others on the street. I did manage to burn my mouth while eating a roasted jalapeño. That's the price you pay for such awesomeness though.

We slept in a bit on Saturday and then took Earl to eat at Lucky Baldwin's with us. They have a porch in the alley (across the way from the entrance to the Scientology Org, so that's creepy) & it's one of my favorite spots in Pasadena. Cameron got tickets to Drive, which I wanted to see. He was quite shocked by this. I've been trying to stretch myself lately in the entertainment department. Watching stuff that I wouldn't normally. This started last week with my viewing of The Walking Dead. I'm getting brave. I had heard Drive was a fantastic movie. I also knew that Ryan Gosling was in it. Like I told my Dad after he mentioned his lack of love for the RyGos:
 "You weren't a 20 year old girl when The Notebook came out." 
Girls, don't see Drive because you love The Notebook. That's just my advice. See Drive because you want to see a really good movie with an amazing cast, fantastic music and an awesome story. Be prepared to cover your eyes for the last 20 minutes if you're squeamish. You'll still love it. We can't stop talking about it. In fact, I'm totally sold on the few outfits worn by "The Driver" and can't wait to buy Cameron a couple of Henley's. 

Minus the mobster blood.

She was wearing the t-shirt ironically though.

After the intensity of the movie, we actually just drove around (not as cool in a Ford Focus station wagon with kid's seats in it) & ended up antique shopping. We encountered a very odd woman who seemed to want to one-up our musical experience after spotting Cameron's new Foo shirt. She was just strange, there's no putting it nicely. Even telling us that she had seen Foo Fighters so many times and that she had seen Arcade Fire in an Armenian Restaurant. She was like a 55 year old hipster. Trying to make sure she had seen bands we hadn't and heard of CDs we didn't know about. She also tried to make sure that I was aware that she loved Foo Fighters more than us... she clearly had no idea who she was talking to. Also, why do we have to make it a competition? Weird. I'd like to look at my milk glass in peace, honey. We ran for the door (slowly since it was antiques and Cameron has Robocop's boot on).

After grabbing a few things at the grocery store, we ended up back at our glorious mecca for al pastore, Arturo's Taco Truck for dinner. That's how we do. I changed it up a little and ordered their carne asada. We sat in our car, listening to Prarie Home Companion and talking. It was a perfect moment that I couldn't have planned. A perfect little reflection of our new lives in this city. 

I call this collage: HOMAGE TO ARTURO'S

 Sunday morning was church & an incredible sermon from our Pastor. It was nice to spend our actual anniversary worshipping and learning. We're studying Ecclesiastes and it's honestly one of the most incredible sermon series I've ever heard. The whole world needs to hear what God is saying through this series. Our worship team even managed to sing one of my favorites, "In Christ Alone". 

We hiked back to our car (no joke, we parked a couple of blocks away) & ended up driving to Griffith Park. Apparently every other person in LA had the same plan. We couldn't find a place to park, but we decided to come back on Monday (I'll blog about that later).  

We had lunch at Home in Silverlake. It was great food and terrible service. Cameron likes to point out that if all these waiters and waitresses want to be actors and actresses, then they should at least ACT like they want to be good servers. Sadly, that wasn't the case here. I think we'll give it another chance, but c'mon waitress that we had, you haven't won an Oscar yet.

We ended up in a cupcake store in Silverlake (Lark) & did a big cheers with our cupcakes (that sounds oddly dirty...) to celebrate our anniversary. Perfect little ending to a perfect weekend.

I have to say that we've had fun on all of our anniversaries (I think especially of last year's Vegas trip and our 3rd anniversary spent in Seattle). This anniversary just seemed to go smoothly. We didn't even really plan anything, it just worked. We're on the same page, the same "wave-length" as they say and we're a good kind of comfortable. We're best friends who enjoy the same things & clearly this weekend is evidence of that. Right down to our matching Foo Fighters shirts that we wore on Saturday. 

Sorry, there's no photo of that. I was too embarrassed. 

Cheers to six years!